Eric Jolliffe

Eric Joliffe
Born	(1907-01-31)31 January 1907 Portsmouth, England
Died	16 November 2001(2001-11-16) (aged 94) Central Coast, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation	Cartoonist, Illustrator, Artist (painter)
Nationality	Australian

Eric Ernest Jolliffe (31 January 1907 – 16 November 2001) was an Australian cartoonist and illustrator.

Born in Portsmouth, England, he was the youngest boy in a family of 12 children. The family migrated to Perth in 1911. The family then moved to Sydney after six months, where they settled in Balmain. Eric left school at the age of fifteen, where he spent the next six years in the country New South Wales and Queensland, working as a boundary rider, rabbit trapper and in shearing sheds. A visit to Angus & Robertson bookstore, whilst visiting his family in Sydney, led to the discovery of a book on drawing. He afterwards reflected: 'I learned to my surprise that art wasn't necessarily a gift divine but a craft that could be studied and worked at'.

Jolliffe enrolled in an introductory course at East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School), where his teachers commented on his lack of talent. During the depression he worked as a window cleaner, during which time he inundated The Bulletin with cartoons, which they subsequently rejected. Eventually they began to buy his cartoons and by the beginning of World War II he became a regular contributor, taking over Andy from Arthur Horner. During the war he served as a camouflage officer with the RAAF and spent time in Arnhem Land.

After the war he joined Smith's Weekly but resigned and began freelancing selling his cartoon strips, Saltbush Bill and Witchetty's Tribe to Pix Magazine. Another cartoon strip by him, Sandy Blight, appeared in Sydney's Sun-Herald. In 1973 Jolliffe began publishing his own magazine, Jolliffe's Outback. He was particularly fond of "bush" subjects.

Jolliffe died at the age of 94 in the Central Coast, New South Wales on 16 November 2001.

External links

• Conversation with Eric Jolliffe (sound recording) - interviewered by Hazel de Berg on 18 November 1974
• Interview with Eric Jolliffe, bush cartoonist and comic strip artist (sound recording) - interviewed by Ros Bowden., 5 December 1995.
• ACE biographical portraits: the artists behind the comic book characters: the Australian comic book exhibition, Australian comics 1930s-1990s, touring Australia during 1995/96 / edited by Annette Shiell and Ingrid Unger (1994, ISBN 0-7326-0829-5)
• Catalog at the National Library of Australia of Eric Jolliffe's material.